The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
The following is an example of a specific aspect in the prior art that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon. By way of educational background, another aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that a snowshoe is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes or mud boots work by distributing the weight of the person over a larger area so that the foot does not sink completely into the snow.
It is known that wearing waders, boot, or hip-boots, areas are often traversed in which the bottom or soil is composed mostly of mud or other thixotropic medium. The mud can make walking very difficult, because with each step the boot sinks into the mud and then, because of the cohesive and/or adhesive properties of mud, it is very difficult to remove the boot from the mod.
In many instances, the boot may still penetrate the mud, particularly if the wearer stands still in one place for any length of time, such as when hunting or fishing. Then, extraction becomes more difficult because the increased surface area requires even more effort to extract the boot from the mud. In addition, the larger area makes walking more awkward, as do snowshoes.
Typically, a pump is a device that moves fluids, such as liquids, gases, or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action. The pump can help remove many of the same surfaces that a mud boot or snow shoe sinks into, and then becomes cohesively attached thereto.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that these traditional techniques are not perfect and leave room for more optimal approaches.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.